Baselworld is only a few weeks away. Getting the latest news is easy, Click Here for info on how to join the Watchuseek.com newsletter list. Follow our team for updates featuring event coverage, new product unveilings, watch industry news & more!

Just 12 short months after Cisco's aquisition of NDS Group, a security flaw in the latest encryption software allowed hackers to breach content protection on several of the largest cable and satellite services...

Not surprised News Corp is getting out of this. They only bought in when they owned D* and used NDS for their encryption for D* and their encoder technology. Back in the late 90's when my station was an O&O, we had some NDS engineers come over from England (which was where the R&D was based at the time) to try and understand how American broadcasting differed from European broadcasting.

We had a Sony Beta Cart automation that played back commercials only (we were still a manually switched house at the time) and they just couldn't understand why we used all four playback decks on ONE station! They had a hard time grasping the concept that in the US we used single macro transmitters (one station) for coverage instead of the European micro cell type multi transmitters (multiple channels) for coverage. That was an interesting two days. Not sure who got the most out of that visit. Them, on how we did things; or us, on how they did things! Great times.

All opinions expressed (unless otherwise noted) are the posters and NOT the posters employers. The poster in NO WAY is/will speak for his employers.

After studying the viewing behavior of its young audience, the CW television network has switched strategies and is no longer delaying the online release of such popular shows as "Gossip Girl" and "The Vampire Diaries."

CW -- a joint venture of CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. -- said Thursday that it would begin making episodes of its prime-time series available several hours after their initial television broadcast. The move is significant because it illustrates how television companies are moving quickly to adapt to rapid changes in technology in an effort to protect important revenue streams.

"Consumers have been telling us that they want the ability to watch their shows whenever and where ever they are," said Rick Haskins, CW executive vice president of marketing and digital programs. "If we don't listen to them, we will be missing an opportunity."

In recent years the CW has made dramatic changes in its online strategy as the network has figured out how to better monetize digital views of its programs.

Early on, the network hesitated to put its shows on the Web at all. But since September 2010 the CW has been delaying the online release of its episodes until three days after airing.

The three-day blackout was designed to boost the TV ratings, and thus protect the important TV advertising revenue. Advertisers pay premiums to reach viewers who watch shows on TV or within three days of their original airing, if the program has been digitally recorded.

CW executives were betting that viewers would be so eager to watch fresh episodes of their most popular shows, including "The Vampire Diaries," "One Tree Hill," and "90210," that they would watch them on TV rather than wait to see them on their laptops.

Viewers were eager to see the latest episode, all right. Research by the Warner Bros. anti-piracy group discovered that nearly a third of online viewers of CW's most popular shows were so motivated that they watched them on a pirate website.

"And 50% of that consumption was done during the first three days after the television run," Haskins said. "That's a lot of money out of our pockets."

By releasing its shows just a few hours after their TV broadcast (at 3 a.m. Pacific time), the CW hopes to reach viewers who otherwise would have pirated them. New technologies also allow the CW to measure the number of online viewers and determine whether they watch the commercials, providing another source of reliable audience data to share with advertisers.

The CW also has been at the forefront of advocating heavier "commercial loads," so the online streams contain as many ads as would be seen in a TV broadcast.

That is a departure from conventional wisdom among most online video distributors. Many believed that online viewers would lack the patience to sit through too many commercials. Sites such as Hulu offer episodes with about half the number of ads that would run on TV.

"We have found that viewers were indeed willing to watch a full commercial load," Haskins said.

CW also announced Thursday that it was introducing its first mobile application for iPad, iPhone and Android platforms. The app enables full-episode streaming of the network's prime-time series and provides a feature for fans to alert their friends on Facebook and Twitter that they are watching a particular episode.

PETA had nothing to do with it. Three thoroughbred deaths in 11 filmed episodes meant the bad publicity was going to cross over into the general public's awareness and hurt the brand regardless of anything any animal rights organization said. HBO had no choice but to shut it down after the third horse died. And they bear all the responsibility because of the choices they apparently made to save money in production.

I take no pleasure in that, despite the astonishing amount of equine carnage in the racing industry which we're just learning about due to this situation, because I was really learning to appreciate how good 'Luck' actually was. A "Milch-less" television world is a less interesting one, IMO. But blaming PETA, a crowd-favorite whipping boy, is a little like blaming the messenger in this case.

Tech/Business NotesBlow Up NBC’s Thursday Comedy Block, and Four Other TV Scheduling Suggestions for Next Season
By Josef Adalian, New York Magazine's 'Vulture' Blog - Mar. 16, 2012

Most of TV land right now is occupied with readying next season's batch of new shows, with producers and execs racing to finish work on over 100 pilots aiming to land prime-time slots for the 2012-13 season. But something almost as important is also going on at the nets: The scheduling gurus and research wonks charged with figuring out how to turn a mess of sitcoms, dramas, and reality shows into a coherent lineup are beginning to think deeply about how their respective schedules might look come fall. Bold moves can often make a big difference: CBS began its march to Nielsen dominance when it decided to take a promising young Friday drama called CSI and move it to Thursdays, and that worked out pretty well. So what big shifts might be in store for next season?

First, a caveat: For the most part, networks can't really decide anything until they at least get a glance at all the new series they've developed for fall. You've got to know your building blocks, after all. And this season, there's also the added challenge of seeing how many late-season newcomers (Touch, Awake) perform. With that in mind, Vulture studied our scheduling grids, double-checked our Nielsen data, and talked to a number of knowledgeable industry insiders to come up with five scheduling suggestions and predictions that could end up having a big impact on the season to come.

Move Glee to January to make room for a two-hour comedy block.

Live action, half-hour comedy hits are a rarity for Fox: Before New Girl, you have to go all the way back to 2006 to find any traditional sitcoms on the network that ran more than 100 episodes (That 70s Show and Malcolm in the Middle). It's too soon to tell if Girl will have legs, but right now, it's the most promising half-hour Fox has had in years. So, you may ask, what in the Sue Sylvester does that have to do Glee?

Well, for the last two years, the hourlong Glee has been the closest thing Fox has had to a live-action comedy launching pad. It provided a great lead-in for New Girl, but the past two weeks, with Glee on hiatus, Zooey Deschanel's adorkability has done just fine without all that singing and dancing preceding it (though the switch to Daylight Savings Time did take a bit of a bite out of the show this week). It's possible Fox will play things safe and just keep Glee and New Girl right where they are. But with Raising Hope not collapsing upon its move to 8 p.m. last week, we suspect Fox might consider going with a traditional two-hour block of four comedies on Tuesdays next fall. And this would mean changes for Glee. If we had a vote, we'd simply announce that Glee should copy the strategy ABC used with NYPD Blue (and which Fox perfected with 24): Keep those Lima dreamers off the schedule until January.

The biggest advantage of this move is that it would allow Glee to basically air uninterrupted for five months, giving the show time to build story-line momentum and help slow this year's audience decline. (This assumes viewers would remain more engaged if the show were a consistent, weekly habit; it is possible they would grow bored more quickly by 22 consecutive weeks of Glee-ish storytelling.) What's more, should the producers decide to make radical changes to the show in light of several seniors graduating (we're noodling here, as Ryan Murphy has not shared his plans for season five yet), a mid-season debut would give Fox's marketing mavens time and space to create a reboot campaign for January, when things are slightly less crowded in terms of TV premieres.

With Glee off in the fall, Fox would be able to continue experimenting with a four-comedy schedule on Tuesdays, as it is doing this spring. It's too soon to say if the entertaining Hope will remain strong enough to serve as an 8 p.m. anchor, but it wouldn't be the most radical thing in the world if Fox put two new comedies on between 8 and 10 p.m., with Hope remaining at 9:30 p.m. or shifting to 8:30 p.m. As we noted in the intro, much will depend on how Fox's comedy development turns out. (We're hoping that Mindy Kaling's project at the network ends up as good as it is on the page and that Kaling becomes Deschanel's schedule-mate come fall.) Fox execs also have to worry that New Girl is too young to air without a strong, established show like Glee as its lead-in: "Do you really want to make it tougher for New Girl to build an audience in season two?" one industry wag asks. This is a good point, but the flip side is that if the comedies at 8:00 bomb, Fox could quickly bring back Glee as soon as November.

Shift Revenge to Sundays.

This season ABC positioned GCB as the successor to the departing Desperate Housewives. The show's actually done okay in the 10 p.m. Sunday time slot behind DH, but it's hardly caught fire, and buzz on the show is just so-so. It's hard to see much upside in shifting GCB to 9 p.m., where it's unlikely to get much of a boost from ABC's red-hot Once Upon a Time. We'd like to suggest a somewhat riskier move, but one with a much bigger upside: Relocate Revenge from Wednesdays to Sundays at 9 p.m. Yes, this would mess up what's currently a near-perfect Wednesday night on ABC. But here's the dirty little secret of Revenge: Its ratings don't match its massive buzz and good reviews. The show is doing fine, finishing either first or second in its 10 p.m. time slot, but in overnight ratings, it rarely does above a mid-2 rating among adults under 50. The 10 p.m. time slot has become a tough place for any network drama to thrive these days, so we think there's a good chance Revenge could soar Sundays at 9 p.m. It's a perfect fit with all the young females watching Once and it would be great counter-programming to the male-skewing football on NBC and cartoons on Fox. (Assuming The Good Wife stays put, we don't think it would pose much of a threat to the newer, buzzier Revenge.) Moving shows so soon in their lives is always risky — we're sure CBS execs popped a few Xanax before relocating CSI to Thursdays — but sometimes it's the best way to turn a promising newcomer into a massive hit.

Give The Good Wife a Stronger Lead-In.

Fans can relax: The show's been renewed for next season. What's still unclear is whether CBS will shift the show from its 9 p.m. Sunday perch just one year after putting it there. We think there's a good chance. While Good Wife wins its time slot each week with more than 10 million total viewers, among folks under 50 it loses a big chunk of its lead-in from The Amazing Race. And with Desperate Housewives vacating ABC's 9 p.m. slot, CBS might want to try something more proven, with a better chance of attracting audiences. "The Good Wife really is one of the few soft spots on CBS's schedule," one industry insider notes. "I don't think its ratings merit staying in that time slot." The most radical move would have Good Wife shift to Friday nights, where its loyal, older audience would almost certainly follow (although some younger viewers would likely make it a DVR show). But CBS is not a network that makes big changes unless it needs to, and putting any show on three different nights in three seasons just isn't the CBS Way. Plus, Good Wife actually fetches a premium for its huge base of upscale (read: rich) viewers, and there's a good chance that premium would evaporate if it seemed as if CBS were burying it on Friday.

More likely? Good Wife slides an hour to 10 p.m., while CBS moves the established Thursday hit The Mentalist into the slot. The latter series seems destined to shift off of Thursdays next fall if CBS expands to four comedies that night. The Eye tested Mentalist out on Friday night last week, and it did pretty well. But we're betting CBS considers Mentalist too young to bury on Friday.

Give Up on Making Thursday NBC's "Smart Comedy" Night.

NBC boss Bob Greenblatt has been vocal in his complaints that the Peacock's comedies draw critical raves but not a lot of viewers. This is why Whitney sullied Thursday night for several weeks this fall, and why Are You There, Chelsea? continues to stink up Wednesday. But Greenblatt does have a point: His current roster of comedies, as beloved as they may be to some of us, are almost certainly never going to grow into the big hits NBC needs. And with all of the networks expected to go crazy trying out new laughers next season, the Peacock can't simply sit back while its rivals experiment (and, in the case of CBS, potentially challenge NBC's decades-long claim to comedy supremacy on Thursdays). "There's just no chance for real growth with what NBC has there now," one industry pundit tells us.

One scenario has NBC doing a Soviet-style purge, dumping everything that's not The Office and possibly shrinking 30 Rock to thirteen episodes for use sometime next season. It would then start the fall with a virtually all-new Thursday, and hope that new shows boasting Roseanne Barr, Sarah Silverman, Matthew Perry, Dane Cook, Minnie Driver, and other big names will allow it to reinvent itself. Our beloveds from Greendale and Pawnee would simply fade away.

Because this thought is too horrendous to imagine, we'd like to suggest a compromise: Reboot Thursday, but shift the best of the night elsewhere in the week — most logically Wednesday, but maybe even Fridays. Our theory is that the 4 to 5 million folks who now watch Community, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock do so religiously and will likely follow (or DVR) the shows whenever they air. If The Office moved with these other shows, it could serve as an anchor on the new night, while also underlining NBC's explosive message to audiences: This is not your hipster neighbor's Thursday night anymore. (Or, as one rival snarked to us, "It'd be 'NBC Thursday: Now 90 percent less highfalutin'.") If The Office didn't shift, it would leave NBC with a security blanket on Thursday, but signal that NBC was giving up on its other veteran comedies. Still, we'd rather take 13 or 22 more episodes of Community and Parks than none at all. (What's more, the extra episodes would help both shows get the minimum 80-90 episodes needed for successful syndication to local TV stations.) Greenblatt's desire to broaden NBC's comedy brand is completely understandable, especially right now, when there's something of a sitcom land grab going on as networks seek to take full advantage of viewers once again embracing the genre. But with so many holes to fill on NBC's prime-time lineup, we hope NBC will find a way to keep both baby and bath water.

CBS Will Make Thursday Their Sitcom Bitch.

Almost certainly, yes, they will. We (and most anyone who studies network scheduling grids) have seen this move coming since last fall, when the success of 2 Broke Girls and the continued growth of The Big Bang Theory suggested CBS might have the firepower to finally make a two-hour comedy play on Thursday. The only thing preventing this move from happening is a weak comedy development season at CBS. But even that might not be enough to stop what seems inevitable: Big Bang paired with another existing CBS hit — either 2 Broke or, perhaps How I Met Your Mother — would leave two slots to fill on Thursday. One of those will probably go to Rob or Rules of Engagement. Neither is sexy, but both have a core audience and don't need to be promoted much. All the Eye needs is one really good comedy for Thursday and a solid show to add to Mondays, and its transformation to two full nights of comedy is complete.

As for which Monday show moves, some have noted that CBS will soon test out an episode of 2 Broke on Thursdays, making that show the favorite to shift. Perhaps, but as one industry expert notes, "CBS hates to move freshman shows to new nights after just one season." It might be safer to make 2 Broke the Eye's new Monday night anchor, while letting HIMYM carry some water on Thursdays. Yes, the show is aging, but it's proven extraordinarily resilient the past two seasons, with some speculation it might have two more seasons in it (rather than the one additional season for which CBS has contracted). Long shots for a shift to Thursday are Two and a Half Men or Mike and Molly. It may be far too late in the former show's run to risk a move, while the latter has only done so-so on Mondays, at least relative to its lead-in.

It also drew a respectable 10.6 million total viewers, ABC's best audience in the timeslot in more than a year.

It was up smartly from last week in 18-49s, when ABC averaged a 1.3 in the hour for a repeat of "Wipeout," and it improved on ABC's average in the hour this season by 25 percent.

But it was down slightly from a 2.1 for the highly touted bow of "Charlie's Angels" in the same timeslot last fall. "Angels" faded quickly and was canceled after only a few outings.

Actually, in several ways "Missing's" debut is more impressive than "Angels.'" Viewership at 8 p.m. has been down this week because of the onset of daylight saving time over the weekend, which leads people to stay out later and eschew the TV set.

And "Angels" certainly got more promotion, bowing in September.

Still, the fate of "Missing," a limited-run series starring Ashley Judd as a mom trying to find her missing son, will depend on how the series performs in the coming weeks. If it builds, ABC might be happy with it. If it fades, that will likely mean just one season.

Elsewhere last night, NBC's "Community" made a stronger case for renewal by returning from a two-month hiatus with the network's best non-sports average in its timeslot in 14 months.

"Community" averaged a 2.2, up 38 percent over its season average of 1.6. The show may have been helped by an online campaign urging viewers who usually tape-delay the show or watch it online to watch live, hoping to convince NBC to renew it. "Community's" on the fence for a fourth season.

Fellow bubble show "30 Rock," "Community's" lead-out, also hit a season high with a 2.0.

Both shows were also probably helped by not airing against CBS's higher-rated sitcoms, which got the night off as the network aired first-round NCAA men's basketball coverage, along with TNT, TBS and truTV.

Fox was first for the night among 18-49s with a 3.4 average overnight rating and a 10 share. ABC was second at 2.4/7, NBC third at 1.9/5, CBS fourth at 1.7/5, Univision fifth at 1.5/4, CW sixth at 1.0/3 and Telemundo seventh at 0.5/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Forty-three percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

Also, ratings for CBS's NCAA coverage are approximate as fast nationals measure timeslot and not actual program data.

At 8 p.m. Fox led with a 4.5 for "American Idol," followed by NBC with a 2.1 for "Community" (2.2) and "Rock" (2.0). ABC was third with a 2.0 for "Missing," Univision fourth with a 1.6 for "Una Familia con Suerte," CBS fifth with a 1.5 for basketball, CW sixth with a 1.2 for "The Vampire Diaries" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.5 for "Una Maid en Manhattan."

ABC took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 3.0 for "Grey's Anatomy," while Fox slipped to second with a 2.2 for a repeat of "Touch." CBS and NBC tied for third at 2.0, CBS for basketball and NBC for "The Office" (2.3) and "Up All Night" (1.7), with Univision fifth with a 1.3 for "Abismo de Pasion," CW sixth with a 0.7 for "The Secret Circle" and Telemundo seventh with a 0.6 for "Corazon Valiente."

At 10 p.m. ABC was first again with a 2.2 for "Private Practice," with NBC second with a 1.6 for "Awake." CBS and Univision tied for third at 1.5, CBS for basketball and Univision for "La Que No Podia Amar," and Telemundo was fifth with a 0.4 for "Relaciones Peligrosas."

Fox also finished first for the night among households with a 7.2 average overnight rating and a 12 share. ABC was second at 6.0/10, CBS third at 3.1/5, NBC fourth at 2.8/5, Univision fifth at 1.8/3, CW sixth at 1.3/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/1.

TV Notes‘In Plain Sight,’ with Mary McCormack, will fade from view after final eight episodes
By David Hinckley, New York Daily News - Mar. 16, 2012

Watch Mary McCormack and Fred Weller make their way through a room full of writers and actors and it’s clear the way they navigate these chaotic scenes is to get playful and goofy. Hip bump here, wisecrack there.

Sit them down for questions about the show in which they co-star, USA’s “In Plain Sight,” and they turn diplomatic.

That’s probably because USA has announced this eight-episode season will be the show’s last.

And probably because they wish that weren’t the case.

Still, they’re diplomatic.

“It’s nice to go out with finality,” says Weller. “Not limp off.”

“I'm grateful for these last eight episodes,” says McCormack.

They don’t sound angry at USA, which keeps rolling out new shows that eventually bump the “mature” ones.

Like the several million fans of “In Plain Sight,” which has been a solid ratings performer, they just don’t particularly want it to end.

“I would do this show forever,” says McCormack, who plays Mary Shannon, a U.S. marshal who helps relocate people through the Witness Protection Program (WITSEC).

Weller plays Marshall Mann, her partner. Marshall is a smart guy, encyclopedic in his useless knowledge and the anchor that keeps the often impulsive and exasperated Mary from violating too much protocol.

Marshall also has slowly developed a thing for Mary over the previous four seasons of the show, in spite of the fact she’s just had a baby and he’s in a relationship himself.

“His feelings for Mary will be dealt with” in the final eight episodes, says Weller, though he carefully declines to reveal the direction and resolution of either this or any other story line.

“We’ve known [during the filming] where it’s going,” says McCormack. “But with the last scenes, there will still be a lot of crying.”

She does say one of the show’s other long-running plot lines also will be addressed: the whereabouts of Mary’s father, who left when she was 7 and whose absence has contributed to her jaded view of men and life.

He will return late in the season. So between him, Mary’s new baby and whatever happens or doesn’t happen with Marshall, Mary Shannon has a lot to jam into these last few episodes.

In the very first one, her recovering alcoholic mother comes in to help with the baby, then bails when Mary’s unreliable sister demands attention again.

“This show has always guided us as it’s gone along,” says Weller. “The first season, no one knew if we were doing it right.”

So everyone grew up together, in a sense, along with their characters. And now they’re all putting away the marshal uniforms, giving up the 14-hour days and perhaps spending more time with the real-life small children Weller and McCormack both have.

TV ReviewUSA looks to give Sarah Shahi a co-star as ‘Fairly Legal’ season starts with a bang

Looks like “Fairly Legal” is going to give Sarah Shahi some competition this season.

Or maybe we should say some support.

In either case, adding another prominent character to “Fairly Legal” is quickly showing signs of enlivening matters.

As Kate Reed, a recovering lawyer who has become a mediator, Shahi was at times almost a one-woman show in the first season of this good-natured, sometimes almost breezy USA hit.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, particularly for Shahi fans who consider other actors simply placeholders and props.

But in USA’s world of smart and quite successful “character” dramas, it almost always takes two to carry a show, and the first season of “Fairly Legal” suggested that second character can’t be a rotating committee.

Kate has a soon-to-be ex-husband, Justin (Michael Trucco). She also has a stepmother, Lauren (Virginia Williams), who now runs the law firm founded by Kate’s late and adored father.

But while both are interesting characters, and Lauren in particular has become a critical part of the story line, neither gives Kate the kind of ongoing partner that we see in “Psych” or “White Collar” or “Suits.”

Enter Ben Grogan (Ryan Johnson), a young attorney who represents all the reasons Kate got out of lawyering. He’s arrogant and opportunistic — a character hardly unknown in TV land.

He won’t be a stranger to Kate, either, because he’s been brought in to save her father’s law firm, which Lauren has ridden to the brink of collapse.

That isn’t all Lauren’s fault, but it’s the situation anyhow, which makes Ben a pivotal player. He also becomes, almost immediately, an object of both fascination and repulsion to Kate.

In case anyone could otherwise miss their impending collision, the season-opening episode sets things up by having a sentimental, reflective and uncharacteristically calm Kate deciding to have a talk with Justin.

And here you guys all thought the chilling phrase “we have to talk” was something you heard before a breakup, not after.

Anyhow, the talk seems to be going harmoniously until Justin offers a few revelations that quickly change its direction.

Soon after that, something else happens with Justin and Kate that not only has a metaphoric link to their relationship, but suggests the second season of “Fairly Legal” may indulge in a little more old-fashioned action drama.

In any case, all this seems to be setting up both a few running story lines and the world into which Ben is arriving.

Nothing that happens with other characters or elsewhere in the plot, though, is likely to diminish Shahi’s presence. With the second season as with the first, she will be the show — and that’s hardly the worst news flash on television.

Welcome to the second round of Vulture's ultimate Drama Derby to determine the greatest TV drama of the past 25 years. Each day a different notable writer will be charged with determining the winner of a round of the bracket, until New York Magazine TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz judges the finals on March 23. Today's battle: TV and comic book writer Marc Bernardin judges The X-Files versus The Wire. You can place your own vote on Facebook or tweet your opinion with the #dramaderby hashtag.

Chris Carter’s The X-Files was the show we didn’t know we wanted. When it debuted in 1993, science fiction wasn’t completely alien to TV: Star Trek: The Next Generation was in its fourth season, and its spinoff, Deep Space Nine, would premiere the same year. But, for the most part, televised sci-fi had been tucked away in the geek fiefdom, and it would be years before being a geek was cool. With The X- Files, Carter brought science fiction out of the basement, and into the light.

The brilliance of The X-Files’ conceit wasn’t apparent at first. Sure, it was always a show about two FBI agents who investigated cases that defied conventional explanation. One of them was Fox Mulder, the Believer, who wanted — no, needed —to know that the truth really was out there. The other was Dana Scully, the Skeptic, for whom the rule of science was the rule of law. And so they fought, in ever-so-hushed tones:

“Mulder, can you really believe that man is a telekinetic?”
“Scully, give me another explanation and I’ll take it.”

And so it went. But a mass audience that didn’t want to go to outer space for their entertainment found a show they could recognize: It was a detective show, starring people who pointed their guns at things.

It helped having stars so damned pretty. Not 90210 pretty, but the kind of pretty you saw staring back at you over the office copier. The kind of pretty that was cloaked in boxy suits and painfully bobbed hair. You always knew that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had something else going on under the hood and you hoped that, maybe, we’d eventually get to see what.

It took a while, though. The first season was rather hit or miss: For every episode that introduced a memorable character like The Smoking Man or Tooms, there were hours that just steadfastly refused to engage the audience. Not only did it take a while for Carter and his writing staff to find their groove — that seductive mix between monster-of-the-week and alien-conspiracy mythology — it took both Duchovny and Anderson some time to find the nuances within their characters, the dogged yearning of Fox Mulder and the spurned child buried inside Dana Scully. But that mythology was in place by the second season and by the third, Carter was able to take chances, to push the boundaries of the format that he himself put in place. As a result, seasons three through six of The X-Files are as strong a stretch of genre TV as we’re ever likely to see, with harrowing stand-alone episodes that merrily messed with what we thought the show should be (like “Pusher,” which showed the crippling downside of getting everything you want) and wild explorations of that dense mythology (as in “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man,” which laid bare The X- Files’ most consistently mysterious character) that raised the bar of what the show could be.

And then the wheels came off a bit. Duchovny would eventually leave the show and without him — and his seemingly never-ending quest to find his abducted sister — The X-Files lost some steam. (As fine an actor as Robert Patrick may be, he wasn’t enough to hold the center.)

But when it was good — no, when it was great — The X-Files took the best of shows that came before it, like The Twilight Zone and Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and synthesized something thoroughly modern. It was the first of a new breed of television show that would allow a mass audience to feel what it was like to be a geek. To faithfully set their VCRs (remember those?) to ensure they didn’t miss a single episode. To look for clues in each episode’s margins as if scouring the Dead Sea Scrolls. To download saucy desktop wallpapers of its ginger starlet. And it turns out, we loved being geeks.

Even though The Wire was borne from and took place in the crack-vial-studded underbelly of Baltimore, Maryland — light years away from the FBI Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, despite them being less than a tank of gas from each other — The Wire was equally geeky, in its own darkly humorous way. Like The X-Files, it was stocked with minor characters beloved by ardent fans; it told long, reaching story lines that occasionally — aw, hell, always —wrapped up without the convenience of closure; it had a skeptical view of the government, which protected its own interests above all else; and there were bonds between characters, both platonic and romantic, that made the dreams of 'shippers come true.

But if The X-Files is like a great album, filled with killer singles and excellent deep cuts, then The Wire is a phenomenal novel, with a sprawling cast, swirling themes, and tragedy up the yin-yang. Created by former beat reporter David Simon, The Wire answered a simple question in, perhaps, the most complex manner possible: What effect does the drug trade have on inner-city Baltimore? And, like Carter did before him, Simon took the cop show, a framework that viewers could understand, and used it to tell his epic tragedy, to take his audience from the street corners, where the rock meets the road, through the schools and the docks, inside a mayoral campaign, and finally to the media tasked with trying to cover all of it.

The Wire was so different, so ambitious, so new, that it all but taught you how to watch it as you were watching it. No show before it moved with such a deliberate pace — you could watch the first few episodes and not know, precisely, where it was all heading. You knew that life on the corner was no joke. You could sense that cops like Detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), Lieutenant Cedric Daniels (Lance Reddick), and Detective Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn) were a bit out of their depths dealing with criminals like Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris), Stringer Bell (Idris Elba), and Marlo Stansfield (Jamie Hector) — much like Scully and Mulder were consistently rocked back on their heels by shape-shifters, backwoods cannibals, and weird-ass pseudo vampires. And you didn't know what the hell to make of the mesmerizing Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), the unflappable stick-up man who loved boys almost as much as he loved money. (William B. Davis’s Smoking Man filled that same mercurial role on The X-Files, but with a bit less swagger.)

The story threw people and places and crimes at you, not giving a damn if you were on the same page, or if you were keeping up. Morality was as elusive as quicksilver, constantly shifting on a playing field that refused to remain level, and justice wasn’t delivered in a courtroom nearly as often as it was dispensed on the streets. Then, around four episodes in, The Wire just clicked, the same way Shakespeare starts to make sense about twenty minutes in. What felt like disparate story threads began to weave into a tapestry of despair. And by the end of that first season, The Wire emerged as a singular achievement in television; a testament to truth that only fiction could deliver.

And then, Simon and Co. did it again. And did it better. And better. And better.

Where The X-Files had a pair of characters that started as ciphers, only to gain depth and texture as time passed, The Wire had a gallery of rogues on both sides of the law that were fully realized out of the gate and only got more complex as the show went on. Where The X-Files sucked viewers in with horrific monster-of-the-week stories and hooked 'em with dense alien conspiracies, The Wire unspooled its tale of the tarnished American Dream with measured patience, tightening like an invisible vise until you couldn’t breathe and weren’t sure why. Where The X-Files had peaks of incandescence, surrounded by stretches of pendulous quality, The Wire was a sustained siege of brilliance from soup to nuts.

Over five seasons, The Wire made its case as the most rewarding drama on TV. It wasn’t an easy show to watch. It required work and fidelity. It demanded that you keep a running tally of crooks and cops, politicians and players, and assorted secrets, lies, and whispers so that when they all got pulled out of the continuity toy box — as they all inevitably would be — you knew who was who and why they mattered. And if you put in the time, The Wire would deliver unto to you what I consider the best show in the history of television. Period.

Tech/Business NotesCW switches to next-day streams for episodes of prime-time series
By Meg James, Los Angeles Times' 'Company Town' Blog - Mar. 15, 2012
. . .
The three-day blackout was designed to boost the TV ratings, and thus protect the important TV advertising revenue. Advertisers pay premiums to reach viewers who watch shows on TV or within three days of their original airing, if the program has been digitally recorded.

CW executives were betting that viewers would be so eager to watch fresh episodes of their most popular shows, including "The Vampire Diaries," "One Tree Hill," and "90210," that they would watch them on TV rather than wait to see them on their laptops.

Viewers were eager to see the latest episode, all right. Research by the Warner Bros. anti-piracy group discovered that nearly a third of online viewers of CW's most popular shows were so motivated that they watched them on a pirate website.

I've learned that NBC has renewed freshman drama Grimm for a second season with a 22-episode order. That may be be the first of several early pickups of existing series at the network, though despite rumors nothing else is expected to come down today.

A low-key addition to the schedule on Friday, Grimm has held its own, even growing when given a chance to run uninterrupted for several weeks. Created by David Greenwalt, Jim Kouf and Stephen Carpenter, Grimm stars David Giuntoli as a homicide detective who is also a Grimm, hunting supernatural baddies. It is produced by Universal TV and Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner's Hazy Mills Prods. This is the first NBC series to get a renewal for next season.

The move comes on the heels of CBS picking up 15 shows earlier this week.

I've given USA Network a little bit of grief for sticking so closely to its formulas the past. But when it comes to "Fairly Legal"(Friday, 9 p.m. ET), I have to admit, I wish the show followed the network's mandates a little more closely.

I watch "Psych" not because the show is reinventing the procedural detective genre, but because I enjoy Gus and Shawn's co-dependent silliness. I watch "Burn Notice" because I want to see Fiona, Michael and Sam defeat bad guys as a team, and because I enjoy seeing how those core relationships evolve. The best thing about "White Collar" is not just its style and intelligence, but the way that the show keeps adding nuances and tension to the complicated bond between its law-enforcement guy and its slick con man. All those shows have entertaining supporting characters, but the main draws with USA programs are not just the sparky pace and tone, but the relationships at the very center of the show.

And this is where, despite having changed showrunners between seasons, "Fairly Legal" goes terribly wrong. Its lead character, mediator Kate Reed (Sarah Shahi), isn't all that interesting on her own, but the people around her are either annoying or boring, and it's hard to care what happens in her personal or professional relationships.

There's also the small problem of the show's story engine, which just doesn't have much gas. Kate's job is to mediate between parties in legal disputes, and the goal is to avoid a courtroom spat (Kate most definitely does not like lawyers, despite having married a prominent one). Episodes generally follow a pretty predictable path: Kate finds out what clients need emotionally and figures out how they can resolve their baggage, then engineers a solution. So it's hard to get invested when you know the result will always be "everyone ends up more or less happy-ish."

But again, Gus and Shawn solve almost every case and the "Burn Notice" crew typically takes out their enemies. USA shows are successful because they have a generally positive dynamic and they create engaging tension without being heavy or dour (TNT and USA are proof there is a lot of money to be made in the cable realm when your shows don't make the audience experience existential doubt).

So it's not as if I have the world's highest expectations for "Fairly Legal," but it just doesn't deliver on a character level, and allegedly that is something that matters to the "Characters Welcome" network. Shahi does her level best with a blandly written role, but there's just not much to Kate, nor are her work and personal dilemmas compelling. The reliably good Michael Trucco, who plays her almost ex-husband, is stranded in an almost completely separate and uninteresting story, and Kate's tense relationship with her mother-in-law, Lauren Reed (Virginia Williams), is similarly spark-free and predictable.

I'd like to give the show some credit for switching things up in its second season by adding another love interest for Kate, lawyer Ben Grogan (Ryan Johnson); but the character is obnoxious, annoying and actively detracts from every scene he's in. If the show is trying to go for some kind of rom-com love-hate relationship between Kate and Ben, it fizzles because the writing is way over the top and there's no chemistry between the actors.

I fully realize that not every USA show is going to be in my wheelhouse -- "Royal Pains" has never clicked with me, for example -- but this is a case of a show just not working on both a structural and emotional level. It's just one of quite a few "Fairly Legal" problems, but the most memorable thing about Kate Reed should not be the sky-high heels she wears in every scene.

Calling O'Donnell "an incredible partner," Winfrey said, "As I have learned in the last 15 months, a new network launch is always a challenge and ratings grow over time as you continue to gather an audience. I’m grateful to Rosie and the dedicated Rosie Show team for giving it their all.”

O'Donnell -- who taped the show in Chicago -- added, " It was a great year for me -- I wish the show was able to attract more viewers -- but it did not. So I am headed back to my home in New York - with gratitude. On we go!”

"The Rosie Show," struggled from the beginning, earning a mere 497,000 total viewers for its premiere, with a .44 rating in the target women 25 to 54 demographic.

Jonathan Wald, executive producer of CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" -- which O'Donnell guest-hosted Thursday night -- tweeted his sympathy for O'Donnell, writing, "Sorry to hear the news @rosie. We loved having you fill in for @piersmorgan last night."

TiVo had a strange way of saying good-bye to its co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. Instead of issuing a press release with warm comments about the guy who helped to pioneer the DVR and, perhaps, an explanation for why he's leaving and who might replace him the company dropped the news today in a cold SEC filing. It says that Barton resigned on Wednesday, effective today. It also outlined his new $25,000 a month consulting deal with TiVo. He will help with patent matters, litigation, and certain technical matters for three years unless earlier terminated by either Mr. Barton or the company.

Responding to a call about the matter, Tivo sent along this comment from CEO Tom Rogers: We are extremely grateful to Jim for his years of dedication and his commitment to innovation that he has provided to TiVo since its founding. We are pleased that he will remain on in an advisory capacity and look forward to working with him in this new capacity in the future. The company says that Barton is headed off to pursue his next big idea'.

Barton was a top executive with Silicon Graphics when he teamed up in 1997 with a fellow exec there, Michael Ramsay, to create TiVo. They introduced their DVR at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show.

My three cents on the broadcast shows I have watched faithfully this season.2 Broke girls (CBS)Thumbs up to the renewal. The relationship is not too unlike Laverne and Shirley in the 70s (and I liked that show too) One thing I think they should look into is have an episode where the DO come into the $$ to start the cupcake business but sort of stay just as broke as ever. They still work at the diner but the cup-cakes is the 2nd job. It works but just keeps them afloat.New Girl (Fox)Three's Company redone this time with ONE girl and THREE guys. I like the Schmidt and CiCi relationship. Fox do NOT put this up against the girls on CBS.Are You There, Chelsea? (NBC)
I LIKE this show. I do not care for Nikki. I DO like Laura's interactions with the "real" Chelsea and almost gives the show the sense of based on true stories. Pity this show will probobly not last but I did enjoy the ride.Up All Night (NBC)An intelligent Kelly Bundy. I also dig Maya's character. I see a renewal for this one.90210 (CW)Not as good as the original. Disappointing that they cut off the closure scene with Debbie and Ryan. When I checked out the season 3 DVD expecting it to be a deleted scene what do I get an unnecessary clip with Ivy and Raj. The HS graduation only took 5 minutes or so and no sign of any parents. I think it should end this May but will probobly get one more year. I'll watch though.GCB (ABC)I DO NOT find this offensive as many so called Christians have this holier then thou attitude.

AN EYE FOR TALENT is key in “¡Q’Viva! The Chosen,” which searches for Latino singers, dancers and performers. Mark Anthony, Jennifer Lopez and Jamie King star, at 8 p.m. on Fox.

SERIES
Dateline: Real Life Mysteries: The two-part report revisits the case of a Canadian military officer who allegedly had a secret criminal life that included home break-ins, lingerie theft and murder (9 and 10 p.m. TLC).

Live From Daryl’s House: Allen Stone performs in this new episode (Midnight KTLA).

MOVIES

Leprechaun’s Revenge: Billy Zane and William Devane star in the latest installment of the “Leprechaun” franchise (9 p.m. Syfy).

Chasing Leprechauns: Adrian Pasdar and Amy Huberman star in this new comedy-drama about a mineral company executive sent to a small town in Ireland to oversee the construction of a new copper plant (8 and 10 p.m. Hallmark).

Home Invasion: In this 2011 chiller, a woman kills a burglar in self-defense and joins a crime-victims support group, where she’s befriended by the dead crook’s girlfriend, who’s determined to destroy her lover’s killer. Haylie Duff, Lisa Sheridan and Jason Brooks star (8 p.m. Lifetime).

TiVo had a strange way of saying good-bye to its co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. Instead of issuing a press release with warm comments about the guy who helped to pioneer the DVR and, perhaps, an explanation for why he's leaving and who might replace him the company dropped the news today in a cold SEC filing. It says that Barton resigned on Wednesday, effective today. It also outlined his new $25,000 a month consulting deal with TiVo. He will help with patent matters, litigation, and certain technical matters for three years unless earlier terminated by either Mr. Barton or the company.

My guess is this is an overall result of the state of affairs at TiVo. They've been reduced to a position where the only way they can make money is by suing other companies for patent infringements before they expire.

I'm guessing the "Chief Technology Officer" has likely been reduced to a "Hardware Cost Savings Drill Sergeant" where the rule of the day is to find a way to cut costs on the guts and rely on the software guys to make just enough tweaks for TiVo to call it new while giving people little reason to care anymore if their provider has any sort of reasonable DVR offering.

TiVo, unfortunately, has been a victim of their own success. They created a demand for a product they let languish (aside from the upgrade to HD) while up and comers found a way to make a product that is "good enough" to satisfy most people at a far cheaper buy in price.

Their downfall has been failing to create and keep widespread partnerships with multi-channel providers to ensure they were the de facto standard instead of having all those companies build their own product.

They should have learned from Microsoft, which had only D* as a partner for their UltimateTV product and the failure that resulted from that.

"The Rosie Show," struggled from the beginning, earning a mere 497,000 total viewers for its premiere, with a .44 rating in the target women 25 to 54 demographic.

How many homes can even get OWN to begin with? It seems her 497 K is almost as many as Conan has. TBS is in far more homes. I can get OWN but only if I subscribe to "Digital View Plus" which would be an extra $10 a month for me. Well there is reason why I'm not coughing up $10 a month. I already pay more than what I feel I'm getting. I'm not paying a dime more.

Shahi is too good a talent to be wasted in this light drama from USA, I thought she was quite good in NBC's Life, a role she held her own in against Damian Lewis.

That golf course looked suspiciously like the Vancouver area rather than anywhere in the SF bay area.

I'd really like to see her in a show that had some meat on it's bones ,than the breezy "Fairly Legal"
Shahi is easy on the eyes for sure & she can act very well . Seemed to me that she was just a wasted talent in this show, bad writing ,terrible plots , bad supporting cast,No Drama ! Her breaking a heel is Not drama!